Atlanta Injury Attorneys Blog

Our Atlanta wrongful death lawyers know that losing a loved one is one of the toughest things to go through, but that difficulty seems even crueler when the loss is of a child. But that is what Jacob and Patti Peters have had to deal with for the past two years, since the death of their nine year old son Jakob. And now, according to news reports, the grieving parents have filed a wrongful death lawsuit, trying to get some belated justice for their son.

In June 2011, Jakob was swimming in a man-made pond when he stepped on a channel, fell underwater, and drowned. The pond was on land owned by Barney Parnacott, who is a Dawson City Manager. And now Jacob and Patti Peters are suing Mr. Parnacott for the wrongful death of their son, saying he did not take proper precautions on his property. The lawsuit claims that Mr. Parnacott knew kids nearby had access to the pond and that, even if they were trespassing on his land, he should have used safety measures like a fence, or should have gotten rid of the pond.

In this, the family is using the "attractive nuisance" doctrine, which exists in law for situations just like this. Under the "attractive nuisance" doctrine, a landowner is liable for injuries to a trespassing child if the injuries were caused by a dangerous man-made thing that naturally attracts children. The doctrine is meant to make landowners think ahead and anticipate children coming onto the property by taking precautions like barriers or fences. Georgia has been quite strict in applying this doctrine in the past, and conditions must be met in order for it to be applicable. The owner must know children are likely to trespass, he/she must know that the thing in question poses an unreasonable risk to any such trespassing children, the children don't realize the risk, the burden to the landowner of eliminating the risk is slight compared to the potential harm to children, and the landowner fails to take reasonable care to eliminate the danger. All of these conditions must be met in order for the "attractive nuisance" doctrine to be applicable to an accident like Jakob's. We will have to see what the court decides on this issue in the Peters' case.

The lawsuit claims that, as an estimation, the healthy nine year old boy would have lived another 68 years if not for this accident. The family asks a jury to decide what they should receive for their terrible loss and also asks for $9,000 in funeral costs.

Atlanta Wrongful Death Lawyers
If a loved one has died unnecessarily as a result of the negligence of another, the experienced personal injury attorneys at Sammons & Carpenter can help you understand your case and what can be done to get you the compensation you need and deserve. To learn more, contact the Law Office of Sammons & Carpenter today at 404-814-8948, or fill out our confidential online case evaluation form for a free consultation.

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Last month, AJC News published a story about a local woman getting bitten by a bomb sniffing dog working for the Transportation Security Administration at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. As Atlanta dog bite attorneys, this headline was one of the more unique that we've seen in recent months.

Susan Dubitsky and her husband were waiting for her sister when the incident occurred on May 2. Mrs. Dubitsky said she did nothing to provoke the dog when it bit her in the stomach while it was walking past with an Atlanta police officer. She said the dog tried to bite her a second time, but the officer prevented it. She told reporters, "The dog just didn't like me. It was scary. There was no reason to go after me." She ended up with a bleeding hand sized wound on her stomach that had to be treated by EMTs. She also needed several shots, although not for rabies as the dog was immunized against rabies. Mrs. Dubitsky was rightfully upset over the incident and said she spoke out because she wanted to help make this kind of incident with TSA dogs not happen to someone else in the future. She also noted that something like this could happen to a child.

Mrs. Dubitsky was also upset that no one from TSA or the Atlanta Police Department came to check on her, although a TSA spokesperson said that TSA is working with the Atlanta Police to investigate the dog bite incident. She is still nervous about going to the airport as well, saying, "I'd like to know why the dog that bit me is still on duty. If nothing else, why wouldn't they reassign that dog to a patrol car temporarily rather than have it in the airport before they know if it will hurt anybody else?"

Mrs. Dubitsky's dog bite happened not long after the government issued a report on the TSA's National Canine Program, citing numerous problems in the program. Earlier this year, the government cited the National Canine Program for inadequate compliance with dog training requirements and using dogs inappropriately to check cargo, instead of passengers as intended. The report also talked about how the dogs often had mixed results in training, often missing explosive odors on some passengers and sensing odors on passengers without explosives. These are potentially big problems as the National Canine Program has grown significantly in recent years. The program had a budget of $52 million in 2010, which grew to $101 million in 2012.

Atlanta Dog Bite Attorneys
If you or a loved one has been injured by a dangerous dog, the experienced personal injury attorneys at Sammons & Carpenter can help you understand your case and what can be done to get you the compensation you need and deserve. Mrs. Dubitsky's case with the TSA dog was not clear, but many times the dog owner is negligent or reckless in caring for their dangerous dog and can be held liable. Contact the Law Office of Sammons & Carpenter today at 404-814-8948, or fill out our confidential online case evaluation form for a free consultation.

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Ben Tucker, a well known jazz musician in Savannah, died tragically in a car accident this week. The passing of this well known Georgia musician is a sobering reminder of the prevalence of accidents on the roadway. These incidents do not discriminate, and the reality is that anyone can be caught in a serious auto accident anytime they are in a vehicle.

Earlier in his career, the 82 year old musician played with stars like Quincy Jones and Peggy Lee and jazz legends like Dexter Gordon and Buddy Rich, and was still playing music in Savannah until his tragic death.

Mr. Tucker was known for playing an upright base, which he claimed was 240 years old and which he named "Bertha". During Mr. Tucker's career, he wrote songs, the most well known of which is "Comin' Home Baby". He had settled in Savannah in the 1970s, according to news reports, and is known and loved around town. He used to own two local radio stations, WSOK-AM and WLVH-FM. Mr. Tucker played at area weddings, jazz festivals, nightclubs, and even at bar mitzvahs. Friends said that people often came to greet him on the street and wanted to shake his hand, and many asserted he was one of the nicest people they knew, always happy to get involved in charity or help friends.

This kind musician, who also loved playing golf, was killed on Tuesday morning at about 11:45am when a speeding Chrysler 300 slammed into his golf cart on Hutchinson Island, according to a Savannah-Chatham police office spokesperson. He was crossing the Grand Prize of America Roadway at the time. The road is part of a former race track on the island, and Mr. Tucker was driving his golf cart from the golf course to the parking lot when the accident occurred. Mr. Tucker died later at the hospital. The speeding car was driven by a 52 year old Texan named Robert William Martin, who has since been charged with first-degree vehicular homicide, racing, and reckless driving. He has been denied bail until his scheduled June 20 preliminary hearing in Chatham County. Martin was allegedly driving nearly 90 miles per hour when he hit Mr. Tucker's golf cart. Martin claimed he had slowed down to 50 miles per hour at the intersection where the accident occurred.

Julius "Boo" Hornstein, a jazz writer and friend of Mr. Tucker, said Mr. Tucker was healthy and in great shape for a man in his 80s and still played music regularly at a Savannah hotel. He said of his friend, "He was a working musician right to the end. He was so instrumental in the music life of Savannah."

Atlanta Car Accident Attorneys
If a loved one has been injured or killed in a car accident with a negligent driver, the experienced personal injury attorneys at Sammons & Carpenter can help you understand your case and what can be done to get you the compensation you need and deserve. Speeding and reckless driving continue to be a serious problem in our state, and not only do victims deserve justice and compensation, but lessons need to be learned by those careless drivers who can cause so much damage to innocent bystanders like Mr. Tucker. Contact the accident attorneys at the Law Office of Sammons & Carpenter today at 404-814-8948, or fill out our confidential online case evaluation form for a free consultation.

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Our Atlanta medical malpractice lawyers noticed another ruling that will have an impact on medical malpractice cases in Georgia. The case is WellStar Health System Inc. et al. v. Jordan and the Supreme Court of Georgia just issued its decision last week.

The background of the case is as follows. Marilyn Kay Adams Jordan had an elective hysterectomy in 2006, which was performed by Dr. James Sutherland. He had planned to take out Marilyn Jordan's fallopian tubes and ovaries during that operation but told her and her husband, James Jordan, after the operation that he could not remove them safely during that hysterectomy. Two years later in 2008, Marilyn Jordan was diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer. She died of the disease in January 2010. James Jordan sued Dr. Sutherland and his employer, Wellstar Health System Inc., for medical malpractice in 2010 claiming that his wife's fallopian tubes and ovaries should have been removed, especially since she had a high risk for ovarian cancer.

In the lead up to the trial, Wellstar wanted to conduct ex parte interviews with non-party health care providers who had treated Marilyn Jordan. Thease are interviews with only one side of the case present. The trial court in Cobb County allowed this and required that the interviews be transcribed by a court reporter if Mr. Jordan requested. Mr. Jordan requested this and then sought to obtain the transcribed interviews, using the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPA), a federal statute. Wellstar objected and said that the interviews were protected work product of their attorneys. The trial court granted Mr. Jordan's request and ordered Wellstar to hand over the transcripts.

The Court of Appeals denied Wellstar's application for an interlocutory appeal (appeal in the middle of a case), but the Supreme Court took the issue up and granted a writ of certiorari in November last year. At the Supreme Court, the decision was reversed. The Supreme Court decision, written by Justice Thompson, said that HIPAA does not provide that attorney work product should be covered only because it contains protected health information. The decision stated, "Given the language and focus of HIPAA's privacy rules, we cannot agree with Jordan that HIPAA requires a party, without regard to privileges and protections afforded under state law, to produce materials containing health information obtained within the course of proper discovery. HIPAA therefore does not require the production of the transcripts at issue." The Supreme Court sent the issue on remand back to the trial court.

This decision was just about one procedural issue; Mr. Jordan's medical malpractice case on the merits still has to go through the court system and there is no way to know what the courts will decide on the main issue.

Atlanta Medical Malpractice Attorneys
If someone in your family has been injured by a negligent medical professional, the experienced personal injury attorneys at Sammons & Carpenter can able to help you understand your case and any legal options possible. Contact the Law Office of Sammons & Carpenter as soon as possible at 404-814-8948, or fill out our confidential online case evaluation form for a free consultation today.

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This week is National Dog Bite Prevention Week, sponsored by the US Postal Service. As Atlanta dog bite attorneys, we were sad to see that Georgia is one of the top ten states for dog bites. In fact, Georgia ranks ninth out of the fifty states, with only California, Illinois, Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Indiana, and Florida ahead of it. According to this study, there were 121 dog bite claims in 2012 with an insurance payout of $3.3 million.

But this is much less than the actual number of dog bites in Georgia each year. For example, Forsyth County alone reported 142 dog bites in 2012, and have already had 37 dog bites in 2013. Nationally, about 4.5 million people are bitten by dogs each year, accounting for five percent of hospital visits, in a country with about 70 million dogs. The Post Office says 5,879 mail carriers were the victims of dog bites in 2012. And the Post Office noted, as well, that children are 900 times more likely to be bitten by dogs than mail carriers. They are the most commonly reported public health problem for children in the US. The Post Office's National Dog Bite Prevention week hopes to raise awareness and educate people about the problem, including with talks by dog bite victims.

Dr. Douglas G. Aspros, president of the American Veterinary Medical Association, said, "Dogs are wonderful, intelligent and loyal creatures, but they depend on responsible owners to teach them how to behave around people." This highlights that a lot of times the dog simply has a bad or negligent owner, and that owner should be held responsible when the dog does something dangerous. Bad dog owners, especially of dangerous animals with more aggressive tendencies, need to be held to account.

Dr. Aspros also said, "Understanding how dogs behave and how to behave around dogs could save countless people from the serious physical and emotional consequences of a dog bite." The Post Office provided some tips. Some are obvious, like be careful with strange dogs and don't approach dogs you don't know. If you think a dog might try to bite or attack, they recommend that you avoid screaming and running away, but rather stand still with your hands at your sides and avoid eye contact with the animal until the animal loses interest and goes away. If it does attack, try to give it your jacket or anything else you can put between yourself and the dog. If you are on the ground, curl up and remain motionless.

Atlanta Dog Bite Lawyers
If someone in your family has been bitten by a dog, the experienced personal injury attorneys at Sammons & Carpenter can able to help you understand your case and any options to move forward with legal avenues against an irresponsible and negligent dog owner. Contact the Law Office of Sammons & Carpenter as soon as possible at 404-814-8948, or fill out our confidential online case evaluation form (http://www.sclawpc.com/lawyer-attorney-1856530.html) for a free consultation today.

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It is incredibly sad and frustrating when there are deaths and injuries that are completely unnecessary.For example, our Atlanta car accident attorneys (http://www.sclawpc.com/) recently read a tragic story involving entirely preventable death that occured last week, about a foolish street race that killed a young man and an infant boy.

Last Friday morning, 22 year old Kyrie Alassen Anderson was driving her Honda Accord on I-20 westbound near Conyers, about 25 miles outside Atlanta. She and boyfriend, 19 year old Edi Rodriguez, were taking her seven month old son Hunter to visit friends, having left her older son, three year old Blake, with a babysitter.

According to the police reports, Anderson started racing with another vehicle on the road. At some point, Anderson lost control of her car, hit a guardrail, and went back across two westbound lanes, where the Accord was hit by Chevy Silverado pickup truck.

Police Sergeant Jeff Puckett said, "One mistake, a mechanical failure, a tire problem, a tire blow out, anything can happen." Anderson was injured with a broken neck and multiple fractures and taken to Grady Memorial Hospital. The people in the Chevy pickup truck- Jody Shane Richardson, 34, and Terry Lee Chaney, 48- were also injured and taken to the hospital and released. Tragically, both passengers in Anderson's car- Edi Rodriguez and Hunter, whose grandmother called "a good little boy" always playing and smiling- died in the car crash. Another less serious accident occurred right after when a car tried to slow down because of the crash and was rear ended by another car.

Anderson has told reporters that Rodriguez was the one driving and the incident started because another vehicle was driving too close to them. She claimed Rodriguez left the car after the accident to check on Hunter and was killed after being hit by a passing car. Rodriguez's family told reporters they don't want Anderson to face charges because she has been through enough. A spokesman for the Georgia State Patrol said the other driver, the one Anderson was racing against, has been identified and will be interviewed in the ongoing investigation of this fatal crash. The investigation has been turned over to the GSP's Special Collision Reconstruction Team, and charges, if any, will be filed after the investigation is over.

Atlanta Car Accident Lawyers
This tragedy was something that did not need to happen. Dangerous driving is 100 percent avoidable, and is a choice a driver makes. If someone in your family has been hurt by a negligent driver, the experienced personal injury attorneys at Sammons & Carpenter can able to help you understand your case and any options to move forward with legal avenues. Contact the Law Office of Sammons & Carpenter today at 404-814-8948, or fill out our confidential online case evaluation form for a free consultation.

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Georgia has an excellent university system, which Georgians are rightly proud of. But there has been a medical issue in recent years that is worrying, especially to parents of college age (or soon to be college age) children. Our Atlanta medical malpractice lawyers have seen recent stories in the news about the problems with abuse of ADHD medicine on campuses.

The root of the problem is that students today are abusing ADHD medicine, such as Adderall, because the stimulant increases focus and concentration for getting school-work done. In a competitive environment, the drug is seen as a way to have an edge over other students and a recent study showed that as many as one third of US college students are abusing medicines like Adderall. Of course, abusing drugs meant to treat conditions a person does not have always has a dark side. In this case, abusing these stimulant medications has been linked to anxiety, depression, and even suicide.
Mixed with students' desire for these drugs are overburdened campus health care centers. In our own state, Georgia Tech said their student health center was so overwhelmed by requests of students for ADHD medications that they can no longer handle the requests.

These problems lead to an ongoing case involving a Harvard student. Johnny Edwards received an ADHD diagnosis at Harvard's Health Services in June 2007, just after his freshman year. He was examined only once by a nurse specialist. Marianne Cannon, the nurse, said Johnny complained that he could not concentrate on schoolwork as much as his friends and that he thought his father "may have had" ADHD. She also said he mentioned two traffic violations and that he drank Red Bull to help him concentrate.

Cannon diagnosed Johnny based on these facts at the one medical visit, and she wrote him a prescription for Adderall, which this type of nurse is allowed to do in Massachusetts. In the months that followed, Johnny became depressed and was prescribed anti-depressants by the same Health Services. Six months after the June diagnosis, Johnny committed suicide. Johnny's father, John Edwards, blames Harvard Health Services for his son's death and filed a lawsuit against the university. Mr. Edwards claims Johnny never had ADHD and that his diagnosis and prescription for Adderall did not meet medical standards. The case will go to trial in February next year.
With this problem rampant on college campuses, and Georgia Tech specifically telling news sources their health services are overwhelmed by requests for ADHD diagnoses and medications, it cannot be long before more cases like Johnny's are litigated. It will be interesting to see how the courts deal with the issue, and how campuses continue to struggle with this serious problem.

Atlanta Medical Malpractice Attorneys
If someone in your family has been hurt by a negligent medical professional, the experienced personal injury attorneys at Sammons & Carpenter can able to help you understand your case and any options to move forward with legal avenues. Contact the Law Office of Sammons & Carpenter as soon as possible at 404-814-8948, or fill out our confidential online case evaluation form for a free consultation today.

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Our Atlanta car accident attorneys, like everyone in the area, spent last weekend trying to stay dry and safe in the stormy weather. Area news reports highlighted the flash flood warnings and rain in northern Georgia. Several parks were closed due to rising water from local creeks and rivers. Tree branches felled power lines and thousands of Georgians were without power. Some areas got five inches of rain, with three inches on Saturday alone, a record for the area. This weather also had an impact on the roadways, which were slick with rain, and there were two horrific vehicle accidents on Saturday in Greene County with two fatalities.

At 11:25am about three miles west of Lake Oconee Parkway on I-20, 26 year old Coranda Nicole Peeples, from Morrow, was driving her Honda Accord when she lost control of the car, crossed the median and was hit by an oncoming tractor trailer. The impact sliced the car into two pieces and Ms. Peeples and her 29 year old passenger, Calverence Roshard Lee from Wrens, Georgia, were ejected from the car. Calverence Roshard Lee tragically died and Coranda Nicole Peeples was taken to Athens Regional hospital with serious injuries.

Another fatal crash happened at 2pm on the same road when a tractor trailer approached traffic backed up by the first accident near mile marker 127, hitting a Ford Crown Victoria. The Crown Victoria went into a spin, was hit by the tractor trailer a second time and then hit the back end of a different tractor trailer. A 17 year old passenger in the back seat of the car, Annaleah Karth from Rocky Mount, North Carolina, was killed in that accident and three other people in the car were taken to the hospital. The driver of the tractor trailer was taken to the hospital as well. This crash is still under investigation by the Georgia State Patrol, and charges may be pending in this accident.

Both of these tragic accidents, and the deaths that resulted, were partially caused by the bad weather but both could have also been influences by driver error. This shows how vitally important it is to drive more carefully in the rain when the roads are slick. A minor mistake in driving could cause even more harm in these dangerous situations than it normally would, and people's lives are at stake, so drivers must be aware of the consequences.

Atlanta Car and Truck Accident Attorneys
If you or a family member have been injured by a negligent driver of a personal vehicle or a commercial tractor trailer, the experienced personal injury attorneys at Sammons & Carpenter can able to help you understand your case and any options to move forward with legal avenues. Our lawyers have worked with all different types of vehicle accident cases and will work to get you the compensation you need and deserve. Contact the Law Office of Sammons & Carpenter as soon as possible at 404-814-8948, or fill out our confidential online case evaluation form for a free consultation today.

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Our Atlanta worker's compensation attorneys have heard about the problems with Pilgrim's Pride Corp. in Georgia, especially after a worker died last year. However, we were still worried to see the number of violations and worker safety problems that were reported on recently. It has important implications for Georgia and others as Pilgrim's Pride employs 38,500 people in 12 states, Puerto Rico, and Mexico.

The problems are at the company's chicken processing facility in Canton, Georgia, where a worker was killed in October 2012. Employee Christopher Chin, a 37 year old Canton resident, died when he was caught in a machine at that facility. At the time, he was trying to remove a piece of cardboard from the machine, called a "hopper,",which did not have a safety guard to keep employees out. Bill Fulcher, from OSHA's Atlanta-East Area office, said, "Establishing safety and health programs that identify and remove hazards before a worker gets injured or sick goes to the very core of providing a safe and healthful workplace. In this case, a tragic loss resulted from equipment that could easily have been guarded."

After Mr. Chin's tragic death, the US Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) investigated the Canton facility and issued a report in April. The failure to have a barrier on the machine where Mr. Chin died, which may have contributed to his death, was one of eight violations cited at that facility. Along with that violation, three others were deemed "serious." A serious violation is one when there is a substantial probability of death or serious harm from the particular hazard about which the employer knew or should have known. Lesser violations are those that relate to health and safety but would probably not cause death or serious harm. Other than the missing safety barriers, the other serious violation was that the company failed to conduct annual periodic inspections of energy control procedures since 2005. And some of the violations were repeat violations, which were violations cited by OSHA at a previous inspection in 2011. One of the repeat violations was that the electrical cords didn't have an effective strain relief device. Another was failing to include the process needed for the removal of locks and start-up following lockout.

From these violations, Pilgrim's Pride faces $58,755 in fines. When they received the report, the company had 15 days to comply, respond with a request for a meeting with OSHA's Atlanta- East Area office, or contest the citations of violations before the Independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

Atlanta Worker's Compensation Attorneys
If you or a family member have been injured in a workplace accident, the experienced personal injury attorneys at Sammons & Carpenter may be able to help you get the compensation you need and deserve. Contact the Law Office of Sammons & Carpenter as soon as possible at 404-814-8948, or fill out our confidential online case evaluation form for a free consultation.

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Our medical malpractice lawyers have recently discussed several medical malpractice issues on this blog, and we noticed yet another Georgia case that caught our attention. The family of a DeKalb County man was awarded $17 million for the malpractice of a physician's assistant that caused the brain injuries of their son.

What happened to 24-year-old Sheriod Merritt is a tragic story. In 2008, when he was 19-years-old, he was shot in the face by a stray bullet from a drive by shooting outside a Wal-Mart in Lovejoy. He was shot through the cheek and could speak, and his mother said he appeared fine just after the shooting. The wound was determined not life-threatening. Merritt was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital where the doctors told the family he would be okay after surgery, and when he woke up he could be taken home to recover. The young man was apparently very anxious about the surgery and told his father that he loved him before being taken away. When Patrick and Angela Merritt came to pick up their son the next day, he was in a coma. They claim the doctors never told them what happened to Sheriod during the surgery or what went wrong. All they knew was that their son, who was still talking and walking the day before even after being shot, had suffered some kind of brain trauma and could hardly speak and could not walk anymore.

The Merritt's turned to the legal system to try to get answers about their son. The case was tried in the DeKalb County State Court with Judge Wayne Purdom. In their lawsuit, the family alleged that the anesthesiologist, Dr. James Richardson, from Emory University Hospital and a physician's assistant, Richard Nardi, at Grady Hospital, didn't follow proper procedure when Sheriod was waking up after his surgery. The family says a preventable error with his breathing tube caused Sheriod to go without oxygen for seven to eight minutes, causing the brain damage. The hospital contends that Sheriod woke from the anesthesia violently, fighting with medical personnel, at which point he dislodged his own breathing tube. The statement said the medical personnel were only doing their job by acting quickly in order to save Sheriod's life.

The jury in the court case found the Merritt's arguments compelling and awarded the family more than $17 million after finding the anesthesiologist and physician's assistant liable, as well as Grady Hospital and Emory University Hospital. Sheriod's mother, Angela, told reporters, however, "I really can't give you a total that would make up for what we lost."

Atlanta Medical Malpractice Attorneys
If you or a family member have been injured by a negligent medical professional, the experienced personal injury attorneys at Sammons & Carpenter may be able to help you get the compensation you need and deserve. Contact the Law Office of Sammons & Carpenter as soon as possible at 404-814-8948, or fill out our confidential online case evaluation form for a free consultation.

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A recent study, as reported in the Washington Post, showed that errors in diagnosing patients is the main source of medical malpractice claims. This study, lead by Dr. David Newman-Toker, a neurologist at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and Ali Saber Tehrani, looked into 25 years of malpractice payments to discover this fact. The researchers looked into 350,000 medical malpractice claims in which payment was made from 1986 until 2010.

What they mean by diagnostic errors are things like diagnosing appendicitis when the patient has an ectopic pregnancy or diagnosing simple dizziness when the patient is having a brainstem stroke. Often the correct diagnosis is eventually arrived at, but not until the condition is more complicated to treat and has possibly disabled the patient. The study did not delve into why diagnostic errors were so common, but Dr. Newman-Toker said that diagnosis is a difficult and imprecise process and there is often a time lapse between the mistake and when it is discovered, making it also harder to correct in enough time to make a difference. There are also no public reporting requirements for these types of mistakes.

Dr. Newman-Toker said, "Diagnostic errors are the most common, the most costly and the most deadly of all medical errors." They accounted for 29 percent of successful malpractice claims and 35 percent of the total money paid out. Incorrect, missed, or delayed diagnosis also caused 39 percent of malpractice deaths. Other categories of medical mistakes listed were treatment errors and surgical mishaps, the other two largest categories of malpractice claims, and obstetric problems, medication errors, and anesthesia errors.

Diagnostic errors have an estimated death toll of 40,000 to 80,000 Americans per year- and about half of them had conditions that could have been successfully treated if diagnosed correctly. In 41 percent of the diagnostic error cases noted in the study, the patient died, which is the highest percentage in any of the malpractice categories. In terms of money paid out for the errors, errors of diagnosis were second only to obstetric errors and on average patients received $389,000.

By way of potential solutions or ways to reduce these mistakes, Dr. Newman-Toker did not think more tests are necessarily helpful. These tests, like CT scans for everyone complaining of dizziness, cost hundreds of millions of dollars in total and are almost useless in determining the cause of dizziness, he says. It seems, in the end, the best options are to have doctors be more careful and have more time with patients, but it is a serious problem and addressing it will be critical for increased medical safety.

Atlanta Medical Malpractice Lawyers
If you or a family member have suffered from medical malpractice, including from a misdiagnosis, the experienced personal injury attorneys at Sammons & Carpenter may be able to help you get the compensation you need and deserve. Contact the Law Office of Sammons & Carpenter as soon as possible at 404-814-8948, or fill out our confidential online case evaluation form for a free consultation.

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A recent medical malpractice and wrongful death judgment came to the attention of our Atlanta medical malpractice lawyers. It is always sad to see these situations where medical negligence causes the wrongful death of the victim, as it did in this case.

The case comes from a visit to a pain clinic in January 2011 by 52-year-old William Wardell Bennett. The pain clinic was Brunswick Wellness and Mr. Bennett checked in to treat his chronic back pain. He had a history of medical conditions that none of the staff checked into or asked about. It was the only time he had ever gone to that clinic. Six days later Mr. Bennett was dead from a drug overdose in his home in Appling County, after complaining of respiratory problems two days earlier. An autopsy showed he had multiple drugs in his system that acted together to kill him. Six months after Mr. Bennett's visit and tragic death, the clinic was raided and shut down by Georgia authorities.

The doctor at Brunswick Wellness that prescribed these drugs to Mr. Bennett was Dennis Momah, who pled guilty in a criminal case earlier this year to prescribing addictive pain medicine without a legitamite medical cause. After barely examining Mr. Bennett. Momah prescribed him 270 tablets of a variant of Oxycodone and 90 doses of Xanax. The owner of Brunswick Wellness, Roland Colandrea Jr., plead guilty to conspiracy to distribute drugs and the clinic's office manager pled guilty to money laundering. A federal indictment of Mr. Colandrea, the office manager, and three doctors, including Dr. Momah and Drs. Cleveland Enmon and Bruce Tetalman, said that they treated 35 patients in a day and one of the doctors saw as many as 63 patients in a single day. Those two other doctors are also awaiting trial on drug distribution charges.

In January, Mr. Bennett's widow, Susan Bennett, filed a lawsuit against Brunswick Wellness for medical malpractice and wrongful death for this treatment of her late husband. The lawsuit alleged that Brunswick Wellness was negligent in seeing so many patients in a day that they did not adequately evaluate the patients. It also alleged that Dr. Momah prescribed opiate painkillers with no legitimate use for treating chronic back pain, which is why Mr. Bennett was there. The Wellness clinic didn't respond to the lawsuit, so earlier this month, Judge Stephen Scarlett in Glynn County Superior Court, issued a default judgment for Mrs. Bennett for $30 million. Her husband's estate also received $5,570 for funeral expenses and pain and suffering. The judgment will never replace her husband and loss, but at least Mrs. Bennett can now have the peace of not worrying about paying the bills now that her husband is gone, and hopefully she feels some sense of justice for what happened..

Atlanta Medical Malpractice Attorneys
If you have suffered from medical malpractice or if a loved one has died due to a wrongful death, the experienced personal injury attorneys at Sammons & Carpenter can help you understand your case and how to move forward. Contact our law office as soon as possible at 404-814-8948, or fill out our confidential online case evaluation form for a free consultation.

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Last month, our Atlanta dog bite attorneys noticed a story about another young victim of a pit bull in Georgia.

At a neighborhood PetSmart on Dawsonville Highway in Hall County, the Lane family, which owns a black lab and a terrier mix, went on a shopping trip. Michelle Lane and her four children, including six-year-old David, were talking to two other customers, Darin Dyer and Craig Wooke, the latter of which had brought in his pet pit bull. Ms. Lane's daughter, Olivia, considers herself a pit bull advocate and the children were petting the dog. Ms. Lane said they let their guard down when David went up to the pit bull and the dog bit him in the face.

The little boy's face was covered in blood and his mother frantically asked for first aid as she tried to stop the bleeding. She also asked the two men who came with the pit bull to stay and talk to the authorities about the incident, but they both left anyway. James Weber, another witness to this incident, tried to confront Dyer and Wooke in the PetSmart parking lot, but reported one of them, later known to be Darin Dyer, waived a handgun and then drove away.

The hurt little boy had to go to Northeast Georgia Medical Center, where he got nine stitches in his face, although doctors think there will be no lasting damage. Mike Ledford, director of Hall County Animal Services, said they believed they had the dog and quarantined it to check for rabies as the incident was under investigation. He said it was "highly unlikely" that the pit bull had rabies, though. The investigation has been turned over to the criminal investigations section at the Gainesville Police Department. Mr. Ledford said in a dog bite investigation they check the statements of witnesses and the victim and that usually the owner of the dog admits that the dog bite occurred. Unfortunately the dog owner here acted even more irresponsibly, first with the dangerous dog and then fleeing the scene. David's mother, Ms. Lane, told reporters, "All I wanted the man to do was to see if my kid was OK and to cooperate with the authorities."

A few days after the incident, the two men were arrested in connection with the dog bite incident. Gainesville Police Cpl. Kevin Holbrook stated that Wooke, the pit bull's owner, was charged with being a party to a crime and that Dyer, who waived the gun at the witness, was charged with aggravated assault.

Atlanta Dog Bite Attorneys
If a loved one has been bitten or attacked by a dangerous dog, the personal injury attorneys at Sammons & Carpenter can help you understand your case and how to move forward. It is particularly important for the safety of Georgia's children that the owners of dangerous dogs understand they can be held accountable. Contact our law office today at 404-814-8948, or fill out our confidential online case evaluation form for a free consultation.

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[Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons]

Last week, our Atlanta medical malpractice lawyers noted a story about a medical malpractice case that will be decided by the Supreme Court of Georgia.The case is called Hankla et al. v. Postell.

The case is about the 2003 birth of Zamarion Everett at South Georgia Medical Center in Valdosta. Vicki Hankla, an employee of Southern OB-GYN Associates, assisted in his birth as a certified nurse midwife. The baby's shoulders got caught in his mother's pelvis during the birth, called "shoulder dystocia", and Hankla maneuvered his shoulder out. Zamarion now suffers from permanent "brachial plexus", which is a condition where the nerves at the bottom of the neck are damaged, affecting arm and hand control and movement. Zamarion's mother, Anita Postell, sued Hankla and her employer for medical malpractice during the delivery.

The trial court found for Hankla, using the testimony of a medical expert, Dr. Sandra Brickman, on the standard of care in a situation like what happened with baby Zamarion. The Court of Appeals reversed that decision, finding that the medical expert wasn't competent to testify about the standard of care for a nurse midwife. Dr. Brickman is a board certified OB-GYN with hands on experience with "shoulder dystocia". The Court of Appeals looked at the specifics of the Georgia law on expert testimony in medical malpractice cases. The law states that the expert must either be in active practice or teaching for three of the last five years, and also must be a member of the same profession as the person he/she is testifying about. Dr. Brickman is not a nurse midwife, so the only exception under this law would be if she had been teaching nurse midwives for three of the past five years, according to the Court of Appeals. This was not the case. So the Court found an error and reversed the trial court's judgment.

Hankla appealed to the Supreme Court, which heard arguments this week. She claims that since the relevant law was enacted, "physician experts in Georgia unanimously have been held competent to testify when they have demonstrated sufficient personal experience either providing or teaching the care at issue in a given case." Zamarion's mother, Ms. Postell, argues the Court of Appeals was correct in their judgment and that the "language of the statute is clear and unambiguous, and the legislature's 'intent' is embodied in that language."

We will have to wait and see what the Supreme Court decides on this issue, which could have important consequences for evidence in future medical malpractice trials in Georgia.

Atlanta Medical Malpractice Lawyers
If you or a loved one has been injured by a negligent medical professional, the personal injury attorneys at Sammons & Carpenter may be able to help. As the case above shows, medical malpractice cases often involve expert witnesses and complicated evidence, so an experienced attorney can explain the case and how best to move forward. Contact our law office today at 404-814-8948, or fill out our confidential online case evaluation form for a free consultation.

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A scary story came out of California recently about an elderly woman who died even though a trained nurse was standing right next to her. Our Atlanta elder abuse lawyers know that Georgia's seniors, as well as seniors across the country, are rightly concerned about this story.

The California tragedy occurred earlier this month. 87-year-old Lorraine Bayless collapsed in the dining room of her independent living facility, Glenwood Gardens, in Bakersfield, California. A nurse, an employee of Glenwood, got on the 911 phone call. The 911 operator pleaded with the nurse, named Colleen, to give Ms. Bayless CPR. Colleen told the dispatcher that company policy forbade her from performing CPR. The policy required her to wait with the hurt or sick person, but not provide any medical care. Repeatedly the dispatcher pleaded with her, and asked her to find someone else to help Ms. Bayless. The 911 call sounds horrifyingly cruel, with Colleen stating, "Not at this time" in answer to the question of whether there was anyone around willing to help Ms. Bayless. At another point the dispatcher said that the lady will die, and Colleen responded "Yeah." Emergency personnel arrived seven minutes after the 911 call, but it was already too late for Ms. Bayless. The avoidable tragedy is heartbreaking, and it is understandable why Georgia seniors might be worried.

A Georgia news story on the incident points out that Georgia's Good Samaritan law would protect people trying to help in an emergency situation from liability. This law applies as long the helper is not getting paid. But even without the Good Samaritan law, many retirement and nursing home staff were also shocked and upset by the incident in California. Greg Rowe, Director of Dougherty County EMS, said, "I've never gone anywhere that I can remember where they were just sitting, waiting on us to get there." And Dr. Graham Nichol, a professor of medicine at the University of Washington, noted that CPR more than doubles the chances of survival, also noting, "If liability was a concern, I would suspect there is a greater liability if someone dies."

The company, Brookdale Senior Living Inc., that owns Glenwood, where Ms. Bayless died in California, issued a statement saying, "This incident resulted from a complete misunderstanding of our practice with regards to emergency medical care for our residents." They are now reviewing their policies and an internal review of Ms. Bayless's situation. It is too late for Ms. Bayless and those she left behind, though. And we hope that nothing like this happens at any Georgia nursing or independent senior living home.

Atlanta Elder and Nursing Home Abuse Lawyers
If a loved one has been the victim of elder abuse or abuse at a nursing home, the personal injury attorneys at Sammons & Carpenter may be able to help. Our vulnerable elderly friends and relatives deserve to be cherished and protected, not taken advantage of. Contact our law office as soon as possible at 404-814-8948, or fill out our confidential online case evaluation form for a free consultation.

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